"After the incredible success of the Asus Eee PC, other manufacturers are ready to get their piece of the pie. This means that within the next few months we are going to see this segment go from just two devices - the Eee PC and the Nanobook (which has yet to come out in the U.S. but which we have been hearing about for some time) - to many more." Another article on the Eee says: "Five of the 10 best-selling notebooks, including the top three models this weekend do not run Windows or Mac OS X. In fact, they are different models of the same diminutive notebook the Asus Eee PC - that runs on Linux."

I agree - the quoted sentiment doesn't seem to affect Apple laptop sales - yeah, they _can_ run Windows (so can EEE) but, how many actually do?! My experience says not very many at all. My testers like their Macs but use Bootcamp to run XP/Vista for application testing but most casual Apple users I know don't seem to bother... or be that bothered.

That's because the two big killer 'apps' that make people say "but it can't run Windows applications" actually run on Macs. Namley MS Office and the Adobe/Macromedia stuff. When people say "but it can't run Windows applications", most of the time they are talking about those two application suits.

Well, OpenOffice.org is good enough for most people, and the import/export filters also are good enough for what most people do. Importing a MSOffice Document, editing it and exporting it back usually does not break enough of the layout to make you say "I should not have done that". Just correct the two flaws in the layout when you are back in MSOffice and resume working on that document.

That is one less Killer app.

And the Adobe/Macromedia staff is either available for Linux (Flash), or has programs with equivalent functionality (kpdf, xpdf, gpdf, print to pdf).
And instead of Photoshop you can use Gimp, as long as you are not in the professional publishing and printing business.

Thats the second killer App down.

Today, the only thing holding back Linux on the desktop is the scarcity of pre-installed boxes you can buy.
Dell is trying to sell pre-loaded laptops, but they are not offering the same machine on the same page with the Windows system as default, and the Linux system as Option, Price -50 USD.

But with the boom of the EeePC, maybe some retailers will see that most people honestly don't care what operating system they use, they just want a machine to do their work with.

That's because the two big killer 'apps' that make people say "but it can't run Windows applications" actually run on Macs. Namley MS Office and the Adobe/Macromedia stuff. When people say "but it can't run Windows applications", most of the time they are talking about those two application suits. "

More features than Office 2007 (because Office 2007 can't do ODF or PDF). Free (as in zero cost). Open (as in "freedom" - especially freedom from lock-in). Community support. Standards support. Cross-platform. Future-proof (no forced upgrades to new versions). Interoperability. In addition to all that, it doesn't burden you with any new "ribbon" GUI learning curve to cope with.